bob dylan - self portrait

Are anxious objects of value in themselves?

I mean how can you not love the piss-take on "Like A Rolling Stone"? Self-portrait!

I mean why in the heck put it on the record then?

A friend of mine sent me the CD last year. I liked the couldn't-give-a-shit sound of it at first, it's so sloppy and his voice is so weird. But I fell asleep halfway through. There are some really weak songs on it. The three Fritz and Andrew mentioned are outstanding, though.

Self Portrait is v. interesting in relation to New Morning, which might be read as a response to the "singer-songwriter" idea which was so ballyhooed at the time and which Dylan himself helped to foster. I mean, New Morning can be understood both as an advance (in the level of seriousness and engagement) and a retreat (from the genre-based stylings of the last two records)--a more committed record and ... possibly ... a "sop" to the audience? I dunno. I rather like the record, though not as much as Planet Waves.

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go.to/stevek

I've always enjoyed Self Portrait for its relaxed, non-confrontational approach. It's definitely in my (Dylan) top 10.

I don't think the story is as prosaic as Mark asserts. Self-Portrait stands as something of an abberation in his career. There's also the fact of its title and that it's a double record. I think contempt for the record company breathing down his neck, and probably just some free-floating perversity, enters into it.

just a point about the thin line between love & hate and all that. no need to get mad.

That pains my heart.

He did cut most of Self Portrait in Nashville--but he cut much of Blonde on Blonde there as well.

I'm conflicted about BD. I know he's a great songwriter--really I do--and when someone plays me his '70s/'80s stuff or even his last few things, I go, oh yeah, hmm, I almost like it, but then I just get dragged by the backing. I just like all the things that everyone else likes pre-motorcycle wreck, and I do like the basement tapes an awful lot. It's one of those things, I have a few artists I know I should like more I guess, like Van Morrison, but there's something so boring about them, to me...

Plus he's like the Beatles--I'm sick of people telling me he's great. To me Faron Young or Booker T. and the MGs are great, I don't really care one way or the other about Bob Dylan. That's just me--as I say, I recognize his achievement.

I like Nashville Skyline because it seems, musically at least, like a real engagement with country music. The arrangements are taut and well-thought-out, though of course the overall affect is fairly lazy.

Best suspension ever in a pop song: The Bailey Brothers' "Rattlesnake Daddy." You'll think your record is skipping!

1 track is offairly rough sound quality, the rest are Dylan of less intensity, but nothing is 'really bad' to my ears.

But nothing beats the "La la la la's" on Sarah Jane...a classic example of "so bad it's good."

from http://www.bsnpubs.com/elektra/asylumstory.html
-- o. nate (syne_wav...), September 10th, 2004.

interesting. perhaps I misunderstood the records Bob was referring to in Chronicle?

-- Amateurist (-m-t--r-s...), March 17th, 2003.

An excellent question. And, of course, the answer is yes! (Which is not to say that I own this thing.)

How good is "Copper Kettle"?

i hope that made sense.

why is 'self-portrait' so maligned? is just like, cuz greil marcus & 'what is this shit?' i dunno, when i first got into bob and hwy 61, blonde on blonde, and all that, and then finally heard it, i guess i had some fun going along w/ all the critics' laughter and derision. but the more i listen to it the more i'm really confused by its status as 'worst dylan album' (or one of em).

i feel like it just as easily could've been called this great, loose, sprawling work of americana/folk/country/nashville/rock/gospel/ genius - which is kind of what i think it is now! - and could've since become a classic album!

i mean it's a totally, totally different beast, but in terms of drawing from those influences in such a loose, laid-back, spontaneous and disparate way, i kind of see it in some ways as similar to 'exile on main street' - which received lukewarm/negative reviews at first but is now obv called a total classic. why hasn't the same happened to SP?

well, imho there are still some pretty bad tracks on SP. that's not a problem (for me) with Exile. i do get a kick out of a lot of the stuff there though. i do tend to skip tracks, but i've probably listened to Self Portrait more than John Wesley Harding

i do i do

yea i think ur right, it's probably a bit much to compare w/ Exile in that respect. there's a couple lousy tracks. but i just see this other possible universe where SP is an acknowledged classic...

also, i pretty much don't believe people (or even dylan himself) when they say it was a total piss-take to get crazy fans off his back. tho i don't doubt that he anticipated that maybe some of his fanbase might react negatively, i think dylan really put a lot of himself into it

and wouldn't 'nashville skyline', which came right before SP, have tempered people's reactions to this? the croon/smooth voiced dylan? the more country-inflected tone? on the NS poll thread i mentioned that i see this as a companion album to NS in a lot of ways, and it confuses me why one is considered a classic but the other a total misstep. i mean, take out a few of the weaker tracks, give it a little more polish maybe, and you basically have an album that's just as good. i mean 'take me as i am' a number of other tracks are pretty much perfect, and totally fit in w/ that NS style.

i think if Self Portrait hadn't been a double album, it would've been received differently, like a logical step after Nashville Skyline. As it stands, I think people were experiencing a post-60s hangover, where they were suddenly like "oh man, remember Blonde on Blonde? Now that was a double album!" If you put the more straightforward country rock stuff on a single disc and no one would be upset. But there are some songs on SP that would just feel insulting to somebody like Greil Marcus, who has invested so much time and effort into mythmaking with Dylan.

But there are some songs on SP that would just feel insulting to somebody like Greil Marcus, who has invested so much time and effort into mythmaking with Dylan.

haha, yea. admittedly i've read very little of him but am i wrong in saying that marcus can be full of shit? his quote about SP: "unless dylan returns to the marketplace, with a sense of vocation and the ambition to keep up with his own gifts..." keep up w/ his own gifts? man what a dick. what are you, his dad? fuck that shit

greil marcus is totally full of shit

maybe not all the time, but at least some of the time, and often when he's talking about dylan

even the different versions of 'like a rolling stone'/'she belongs to me' which are ripped on like crazy - i even think these are great and totally fit in this album. they're basically just more countryfied, rock n roll, barroom versions, not much else - which is great! like some dive band ripping into a cover and everyone's spilling drinks and singing along. it totally takes the bite out of the originals but fits completely w/ what dylan's doing with this whole album & playing around w/ the 'great american songbook' and all that in such a loose and unrefined way

same goes for the 'blue moon' cover, which also got ripped apart. i dunno, sounds just as warm and gorgeous as anything else on 'nashville skyline'

the 'blue moon' cover and what i think dylan's attitude was wrt singing it makes me think of that interview when dylan's talking about the 'anthology of american folk music' and all the greil marcus 'old weird america' cult status that was given to it, but then talks about how great the kingston trio was instead and how much he liked them too

sorry guys i'm just having one of those 'THE CRITICS ARE RONG' moments here

oh who knows, if I had been a hardcore Dylan fan or a critic in 1970, I mighta been as disappointed in Self Portrait as Greil was. I'd say he's only about 50% full of shit when it comes to Dylan. Which is a better percentage than a lot of writers! And yeah, I don't know why the live remakes of "she belongs to me" and "quinn the eskimo" aren't more praised. That's Dylan and the Band at the Isle of Wight -- they should seriously put that whole show out as a Bootleg Series. There are only audience tapes available bootleg-wise. Totally unique and fun show -- the only live appearance of Dylan's country croon.

Belle Isle is beautiful.

yea i would love to hear the rest of that

xp

I like this much more than New Morning which everyone hails as his return to form. It's fun, the covers are interesting, even when not all that great (though I always laugh at his version of "The Boxer"). However, keep in mind that I'm one of those people that finds Dylan a blast and wish it was in print. More people need to hear his "Mr. Bojangles."

yeah, seems a little unlikely they'll officially release it since it's sort of a weird show. great, but weird. Would be nice if Dylan started a "Dick's Picks" kinda thing, officially releasing some great live shows from his archives. Not that there aren't enough live bootlegs out there to last a lifetime, but I think a dozen or so well-chosen sets from over the years would be great.

btw if you like this era Dylan check out the comp of outtakes I posted on my blog here: http://doomandgloomfromthetomb.tumblr.com/post/100814102/winterlude-the-early-word-on-the-new-dylan-album i think the Johnny Cash covers are from the Self Portrait sessions actually.

xps - i love new morning too. i've basically just had a great time getting into this period of dylan lately - everything from JWH, NS, new morning, pat garrett, planet waves, - i often feel like there's some kind of weird position some people have that between 'blonde on blonde' and 'blood on the tracks' there's not a whole lot worth listening to, which is so, so wrong.

awesome, thanks tylerw!

downloaded that right away

also goddam, what a great cover
http://images.uulyrics.com/cover/b/bob-dylan/album-self-portrait.jpg
haha, do you think that is actually a self portrait?

haha i heard that it is, right? didn't he say he did it in like 5 minutes?

yeah: "And then I did this portrait for the cover. I mean, there was no title for that album. I knew somebody who had some paints and a square canvas, and I did the cover up in about five minutes. And I said, 'Well, I'm gonna call this album Self Portrait.'"

actually, the title probably has something to do with the super-negative reaction the record got when it came out. sounds so serious and soul-baring, but it must've felt like a big "fuck you" at the time.

Dylan's explanation of the album as his own bootleg is interesting too: "Self Portrait was a bunch of tracks that we'd done all the time I'd gone to Nashville. We did that stuff to get a studio sound. To open up we'd do two or three songs, just to get things right and then we'd go on and do what we were going to do. And then there was a lot of other stuff that was just on the shelf. But I was being bootlegged at the time and a lot of stuff that was worse was appearing on bootleg records. So I just figured I'd put all this stuff together and put it out, my own bootleg record, so to speak. You know, if it actually had been a bootleg record, people probably would have sneaked around to buy it and played it for each other secretly. Also, I wasn't going to be anybody's puppet and I figured this record would put an end to that...I was just so fed up with all that who people thought I was nonsense."

That's not a piss-take: it's from the notoriously bad Isle of Wight performance.
― Amateurist (amateurist), Monday, March 17, 2003 9:40 PM (6 years ago) Bookmark

I kind of like the four Isle of Wight songs..i thought i read somewhere that the show is great

I'm kinda glad I never really read a whole lot about this album before I finally got around to hearing it for the first time tonight, because I quite like it! Yeah, obviously nowhere near as good as any of his previous albums, but not at all deserving of the bad rep imho.

copper kettle's the best. contains essential fire building advise:

Build you a fire with hickory, hickory, ash and oak
Don't use no green or rotten wood, they'll get you by the smoke

I forgot more
than you
'll ever know
about her

this mighty Quinn is the one. i mean I like some of the others but

this record is sooo good it's ridiculous. i swear i'm not trying to be contrarian, but i've never liked blood on the tracks, except for 'you're a big girl now'. why was this viewed as his intentionally bad record? yeh, the live cuts of quinn and rolling stone are goofy takes, but man there are some amazing cuts on this record. totally rivals nashville skyline imo. the song about moonshine is to die for

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nSkhxA7FPg

insanely good

also totally didn't read this thread so sorry if i'm retreading old ground

whatevs! \O/

o wait mighty quinn is a goof on this? :(

bob dylan's most stridently earnest moments have fickle twists he is the mobius soft pretzel of american song

mighty quinn is good on this, from the isle of wight show with the band. the rolling stone is pretty hilarious though, probably the worst performance from that show!
i'd love it if columbia put the whole wight show out though, there's some great stuff.

Still love this album. So good.

An ex-girlfriend's parents had this as their only Dylan CD. It keeps on popping into my mind. They were kind of into music without being really into music. We even went to a Dylan show together, the four of us. I hated seeing that one Dylan CD they owned. I felt like saying, "You know this is supposed to be really bad don't you?" but I didn't do it. Maybe I would've sounded like a dick. Maybe they didn't even play it anyway. Sometimes I am disproportionately afraid that I too have spoiled my record collection by having other artists' equivalents of Self Portrait as my only selection by them.

hah

hee hee that's great. dylan would probably be pleased that it was the only CD they had of his. it's presented so seriously, with that arty cover and the name "self portrait." i can kind of see someone who was a little clueless thinking it was like a greatest hits or something. and if they saw that "like a rolling stone" was included...

I like 'Copper Kettle' too, especially the vocal on the last verse & chorus, and the weird solemnity/archaism of some of the lyrics - 'and nevermore you'll toil', etc.

"it's presented so seriously, with that arty cover and the name "self portrait."'

my mom bought Cpowers "The Greatest" under the assumption that it was indeed a greatest hits. also, wondered why 'moonshiner' wasnt on it

my mom bought Cpowers "The Greatest" under the assumption that it was indeed a greatest hits.

good grief, i am so old!!

30 here

mama likes her records though

hers as in the ones in her house not nec chan marshall one

this is a great record to appreciate with a lot of distance from all the "meaning" dylan was weighted with at the time (and according to him, that's part of why he did the record, to try to shake off some of that meaning). Some of the covers hold up very nicely against the sort of country-folk-rock "rarities" of the era that have garnered attention since then, and some of the originals are good too. All the Tired Horses is cool as shit imo, and sounds 10-15 years ahead of its time.

here's that RSD self portrait outtake -- not mindblowing but pretty good! http://xzyoe.tumblr.com/post/48617452950/thirsty-boots-bob-dylan

i did that song!

excited for this upcoming bootleg series i want all kindsa mellowed out piano dylan stuff for summer day listening

goddamn i shoulda bought this on RSD

guess you can get it for kinda cheap here: http://www.amazon.com/Bob-Dylan-Thirsty-Exclusive-Release/dp/B00CF6XCW0
yeah, i feel like this is the dylan i actually want to listen to because now i am a mellowed out dude in my mid-30s in colorado.

it took me a while to accept New Morning as my personal favorite Dylan album, though i know many others are objectively better i haven't wanted to listen to them for a long time really, only other ones i pull out much besides new morning is desire and the rolling thunder bootleg series live one

i'm pretty much all about john wesley harding through planet waves these days. with some dips into street legal and the gospel years. i'm in deep!

nashville skyline has been my personal fave for a long time.

i sound intelligent upthread; that will probably never happen again.

i should listen to john wesley harding

i kinda stan for infidels for some reason even though i know it's not that great really

ppl always quote 'what is this shit?' as if it's the whole review, but it's just the first line! iirc marcus was much more nuanced in the rest of the review.

I really like this explanation (Rolling Stone as quoted in Wikipedia):

However, in a Rolling Stone interview taken in 1984, Dylan gave a different reason for the album's release:

“ At the time, I was in Woodstock, and I was getting a great degree of notoriety for doing nothing. Then I had that motorcycle accident [in 1966], which put me out of commission. Then, when I woke up and caught my senses, I realized that I was workin' for all these leeches. And I didn't wanna do that. Plus, I had a family, and I just wanted to see my kids.
I'd also seen that I was representing all these things that I didn't know anything about. Like I was supposed to be on acid. It was all storm-the-embassy kind of stuff—Abbie Hoffman in the streets—and they sorta figured me as the kingpin of all that. I said, 'Wait a minute, I'm just a musician. So my songs are about this and that. So what?' But people need a leader. People need a leader more than a leader needs people, really. I mean, anybody can step up and be a leader, if he's got the people there that want one. I didn't want that, though.

But then came the big news about Woodstock, about musicians goin' up there, and it was like a wave of insanity breakin' loose around the house day and night. You'd come in the house and find people there, people comin' through the woods, at all hours of the day and night, knockin' on your door. It was really dark and depressing. And there was no way to respond to all this, you know? It was as if they were suckin' your very blood out. I said, 'Now wait, these people can't be my fans. They just can't be.' And they kept comin'. We had to get out of there.

This was just about the time of that Woodstock festival, which was the sum total of all this bullshit. And it seemed to have something to do with me, this Woodstock Nation, and everything it represented. So we couldn't breathe. I couldn't get any space for myself and my family, and there was no help, nowhere. I got very resentful about the whole thing, and we got outta there.

We moved to New York. Lookin' back, it really was a stupid thing to do. But there was a house available on MacDougal Street, and I always remembered that as a nice place. So I just bought this house, sight unseen. But it wasn't the same when we got back. The Woodstock Nation had overtaken MacDougal Street also. There'd be crowds outside my house. And I said, 'Well, fuck it. I wish these people would just forget about me. I wanna do something they can't possibly like, they can't relate to. They'll see it, and they'll listen, and they'll say, 'Well, let's get on to the next person. He ain't sayin' it no more. He ain't given' us what we want,' you know? They'll go on to somebody else. But the whole idea backfired. Because the album went out there, and the people said, 'This ain't what we want,' and they got more resentful. And then I did this portrait for the cover. I mean, there was no title for that album. I knew somebody who had some paints and a square canvas, and I did the cover up in about five minutes. And I said, 'Well, I'm gonna call this album Self Portrait.'
”

As to why he chose to release a double album, Dylan replied, "Well, it wouldn't have held up as a single album—then it really would've been bad, you know. I mean, if you're gonna put a lot of crap on it, you might as well load it up!"

yeah it's true, marcus spends the next 10,000 words trying to figure out what this shit is! and i think he decides it's pretty good shit.
& yeah, infidels is pretty solid except for a couple songs.

80s bob dylan is ruined by recording/production/mastering for me

also it's not really that great to begin with so it's not like a battle with my conscience or something

even blind willie mctell isn't very good. sry.

actually time out of mind is ruined by production for me too.

i love this album. "all the tired horses" is hilarious.

Here's the infamous original Greil Marcus review of Self Portrait: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/albumreviews/self-portrait-19700608

Holy fuck, and I thought the liner notes to Blood on the Tracks were pretentious...

I can understand the reaction against Self Portrait at the time, to the extent that I can understand that time at all, everything was so fraught and freighted. But 40 years on, in the broader context of his career, it fits nicely. I take at face value that these are songs he liked, and they're all things -- trad folk, blues, Tin Pan Alley, Nashville pop -- that he's come back to at different times. And how has "Wigwam" not turned up in a Tarantino movie?

it has turned up in a wes anderson movie, the royal tenenbaums

Well, there you go.

Being Bob Dylan at that time sounds pretty crazy. People were literally breaking into his house and hanging out there. I'd want to do a fuck off album too.

And like so many things Dylan, it's sort of simultaneously ingenuous and disingenuous. You can see it as both an intentional find-another-guru move, and also a sincere gesture of, "this is who I really am, a guy who likes music and sings songs, and here's some good tunes."

So, where does that leave the 'Dylan' album?

even blind willie mctell isn't very good. sry.

― flesh, the devil, and a wolf (wolf) (amateurist), Monday, April 29, 2013 12:43 AM (4 days ago)

rongest thing ever posted about dylan anywhere

lol. i was psyched when he played that one in concert. also, xpost where can i read the liner notes to blood on the tracks. i have a vinyl copy but there are no liner notes.

even blind willie mctell isn't very good. sry.
― flesh, the devil, and a wolf (wolf) (amateurist), Monday, April 29, 2013 12:43 AM (4 days ago)

rongest thing ever posted about dylan anywhere

― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Friday, May 3, 2013 4:46 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

production is dull and lanoisy, lyrics r dumb, what can i say?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wbWPyhW7fE

lanois' work with dylan wasn't bad at all... oh mercy is the best-sounding album from that era in his career. i don't want to enter into an involved discussion of the lyrics of that song, but i think dylans move from the abstract/elegiac to the specific/banal in the final verse -- "i'm starin out the window of the st james hotel" -- is masterful. that's my favorite thing he does, when he strategically drops the mask of metaphorical conceit and acknowledges, almost, that his song has run away from him. another good example of this is the end of desolation row "right now i don't read too good...etc."

treeship: http://www.bobsboots.com/CDs/cd-b28_Hamilltext.html

found it by googling "it was not confined to the oran of camus" lol

lol thanks.

can't think of a set of lyrics in all of dylan's oeurve as perfectly formed as the lyrics to BWM. like i'd happily concede that every other great dylan song, even 'like a rolling stone,' even 'visions of johanna,' has some silly meaningless shit that dylan's just throwing out because it sounds good to him at the moment, but not that one. so i guess we disagree.

production is dull and lanoisy, lyrics r dumb, what can i say?

― flesh, the devil, and a wolf (wolf) (amateurist), Saturday, May 4, 2013 7:23 AM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

man if those lyrics are dumb, what can i say? this land really is condemned. one of his best lyrics

My favorite 80s Dylan song could be Dark Eyes from Empire Burlesque. That is not a good album by any stretch but he stuck that one at the end and it's a stunner.

I also have a soft spot for Caribbean Wind.

ha -- we disagree. "Dark Eyes" sounds like a sop to fans who want the acoustic track on an album whose songs sport all kinds of electronic filigrees. Several songs better than "Dark Eyes": "Something's Burning, Baby" (my favorite), "Trust Yourself," "Clean Cut Kid." He clearly likes "I'll Remember You" -- he still performs it. I don't get what "Emotionally Yours" is about, but it's creepy as fuck.

actually time out of mind is ruined by production for me too.

― flesh, the devil, and a wolf (wolf) (amateurist),

TOOM is ruined by half the album being unfinished or boring dreck.

no way. highlands is great.

It doesn't undermine my point. "Highlands," "Not Dark Yet," "Tryin' to Get to Heaven" -- dat's dat. The album is a parody of a Lanois production.

ha knew you couldn't resist that trash toom/defend empire burlesque twofer

no question EB has more songs I care about, "Miami Vice" drapery notwithstanding.

standing in the doorway is also good. that one and the ones you listed are the only ones that mean much to me, it's true. still, the other songs aren't that "bad"... and even blonde on blonde has a bunch of filler. i think it's a little much to say the album is "ruined" by the non-spectacular tracks, and i also don't think it's a parody of lanois production. the spacious echoey sound works well i think.

the cover to empire burlesque is classic, and dark eyes is also classic. empire burlesque is classic. i think the chintzy 80s production of bob dylan songs is kind of surreal in a good way, even if it mars the songs at times. i think the album we should really be talking about is "at budokan"... "blasphemous" lounge versions of all his greatest hits, it's so great.

i think if he released tastefully produced, consistent albums throughout his career his catalog would be way less interesting.

love toom but 'cold irons bound' and 'standing in the doorway' are the only tracks i think have a shot at my ballot (and i'm assuming that ballot's gonna have like a hundred slots). 'red river shore' could conceivably as well but it didn't even make the album (same w/ 'mississippi'). i think i'm at the point where i'll finally admit love and theft is a better album but it will never mean as much to me as toom.

love and theft is a less personal-sounding album in general, i think. i like it but i also prefer time out of mind.

Thanks to this topic, I sought out Oh Mercy over the weekend and I really like it!

I always thought 'Series of Dreams' was the lone standout on the latter half of disc three of the original Bootleg Series set, but I can see why it was left off the proper album. Really like the sparse, airy sound Lanois gives the album. Suits Bob well at that point. Makes him sound like a desert wanderer or something. Too early at this point to really process, but I'll just say that I didn't expect to like it as much I do.

Also picked up the Dylan album, more for completeness sake than anything, but I've been playing Oh Mercy so much that I haven't even taken it out of its jacket yet.

Oh Mercy is good. I bout a cheap copy in high school and fell in love with it before I was really interested in where it fit in in the canon. "Most of the Time" is as devastating as anything on Blood on the Tracks

Track down a copy of the Oh Mercy demos bootleg if you get a chance. It made me like the album even more.

The first Dylan I bought with my own money, Oh Mercy has sentimental value for me despite my wrinkling my nose at "Disease of Conceit" and "Ring Them Bells" when I was fifteen. If TOOM is the nadir of Lanois-Dylan, then "Man in the Long Black Coat" and "What Was It You Wanted" are the peaks imo.

xpost i'll try to do that. have a bootleg mp3 of an alternate take of "most of the time" and it's good stuff. i think dylan writes about the recording sessions of that album in chronicles, and i forget what he says but i remember thinking it was a good section.

i think if he released tastefully produced, consistent albums throughout his career his catalog would be way less interesting.

I can sort of see what you're saying here, because as much I love Bob, I've never really connected with any of the later "big three" albums (Time Out of Mind, Love and Theft and Modern Times), even though I know that, objectively, they're darn good albums. Just don't really merit repeat listens, because they sound so normal.

x-post: Yes, I was immediately very interested in checking out that Bootleg Series #8 (this guy) for anything associated with Oh Mercy. What d'ya know about that stuff?

LOVE tell-tale signs

even blonde on blonde has a bunch of filler.

a lot of filler, really?

… i don't like "rainy day women" but it's not "filler," it's clearly a statement (musical as well as social) of some kind

the only things i might characterize as "filler" is "temporary like achilles" (one of the many blues-based songs on the LP, but probably the least of them), "leopard-skin pill-box hat" (which has some great lines), and "obviously five believers" (which is probably the worst song on the record). and none of these songs are half as bad as the worst stuff dylan did in the mid-1980s.

challops, i say.

"five believers" is kind of a "she's about a mover" rip-off which makes me like it just a bit more

sorta mystifies me that in the off years when there's no new dylan that we don't get a new bootleg series, xian period is at the top of my personal wishlist but from a pure business standpoint can't figure out how the dylan/cash sessions haven't come out, that was a big seller when i worked in a record store.

the Live 1966 version of "Leopard-Skin Pillbox Hat" is all I need.

I love "Series of Dreams," notably when those synths crash against that line about the umbrella.

xpost "leopard skin pillbox hat" is dreadful; "rainy day woman" unlistenable. i don't like "just like a woman" but that is just me, i realize. idk. five believers is a whatever song to me as well. but the album reaches insane summits as well and contains two of my top twenty all time favorite songs

This is the Oh Mercy boot I love to pieces:

http://www.bobsboots.com/CDs/cd-d13.html

pretty sure that every dylan thread now has alfred's elaborate empire burlesque defense.
from a pure business standpoint can't figure out how the dylan/cash sessions haven't come out
tbh about 85% of this session is garbage -- it's charming to hear them stumble over every tune they try, but it's not like it's some sort of awesome piece of music.

somebody tempts me!

ASK ME WHAT I THINK ABOUT EMPIRE BURLESQUE (t-shirt)

I was blaring "Rainy Day Woman" driving down the Lakeshore today. There's no Dylan song I'd rather sing along to, no song where I'd rather imitate him. Brilliant.

ASK ME WHAT I THINK ABOUT EMPIRE BURLESQUE (t-shirt)
lol that would be a good t shirt

hm... yeah i just hate rainy day woman. different strokes. but i would wear that empire burlesque t shirt.

no EB t-shirts available!

i think i went through a phrase where i wanted to skip rainy day woman but now i'm back to loving it. i'll go on record saying that blonde on blonde is filler-less.

http://25.media.tumblr.com/cb139b0ffd34be393d6b8d54a9577969/tumblr_mmcup1KDEG1qzy30io1_500.png

Sold. I'll give you $1.50 -- the price of a used copy of EB on Amazon.

i think my favorite thing about empire burlesque is that photo

i never seek it out but i always have time for 'rainy day women' (i am a little horrified that that's what ties 'like a rolling stone' for highest charting dylan single). at this point i think i may have more time for 'she's always a woman' than 'just like a woman'.

"just like a woman" is kind of really gross.

i wish it didn't share an album with "visions of johanna", the greatest song of the 60s.

fave on that lp is stuck inside of memphis...
close 2nd i want you

btw y'all know that next bootleg series will cover self-p/new morning sessions right? or have we covered this already?

er stuck inside of MOBILE

just like a woman is heavy dumb. leopard-skin pill-box hat is GREAT, the part where the doctor steals his girl is better than when it happens to leonard cohen.

tell tale signs has all kinds of good stuff on it including the definitive version of "someday baby" from modern times.

i like "something's burning baby" too but it's definitely on the hokier end of the dylan apocalypse spectrum. (my favorite pious dylan dystopia is "foot of pride". they take all this money from sin. build BIIIIIIIIIIG universities to study in. sing amazing grace ALL the way to the swiss banks.)

he's singing about hisself from 5 years earlier maybe

I like to think that Bob is referring the Monty Python foot in "Foot of Pride".

what makes SBB hokey is the synth horn

SOMETHING'S THE MATTER BABY THERE'S SMOKE IN YOUR HAAAAAAAAAAAAAIR.

do u think it's about America

ignore that question

do u think it's about America

sure – if you're Bono

ONE HUNDRED

dylan albums without filler: highway 61, john wesley harding, uhhh live '66.

Nashville Skylines pretty solid.

nashville skyline is kind of all filler. in a good way.

incidentally I just googled "who is the girl on the back of empire burlesque" and found this thread:
http://www.expectingrain.com/discussions/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=68556

so many completely ridiculous guesses! A lot of people are near blind, apparently.

lol at that being emmylou harris!

that's not even the worst guess!

nashville skyline is kind of all filler. in a good way.

― tylerw, Monday, May 6, 2013 2:38 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i see what you're getting at but no. "i threw it all away" is nobody's idea of filler. it's one of his very best songs IMO.

but the whole album can be read as a "tribute" to those country music LPs of the era (say, by roger miller) that are like 26 minutes long and include a few instruments and "trad arr." tunes to save money on royalties. just completely unpretentious but (at their best) still committed to quality.

so good

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLwhDb7J7TY

Yep. New Morning is where tries to transcend that style.

also you have to wonder if the back cover of a very mundane even glum looking nashville cityscape is bob being a little tongue in cheek

http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2629/4013250338_30c76ed815_z.jpg

also the playing on this record

bonerville, population: me

http://www.bobdylan.com/us/node/31036

:D

wait so the self-portrait reissue is only gonna be in the deeeluxe version?

yup. :(

No

http://www.amazon.com/Self-Portrait-1969-1971-Bootleg-Series/dp/B00DW5IM9Q/ref=sr_sp-atf_title_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1373992643&sr=8-2

The Standard Version contains 35 tracks on 2 CD's, and soft cover perfect bound booklet
The Deluxe Version contains 4 CD s and two hardcover books housed in a hardcover slip case
Book # 1 contains 4 CD's and liner notes
Book # 2 contains the photos from John Cohen and Al Clayton.
The 2 bonus CD's will contain the newly remastered version of Self Portrait and the complete 17 song recording of Dylan & The Band performing live at the Isle Of Wight in 1969
The vinyl version contains 35 tracks on 3 LPs (and 2 CDs) plus a 12" x 12" booklet that includes the liner notes written by Greil Marcus, the essay from Michael Simmons, and the photographs from John Cohen and Al Clayton, and pictures of the original tape boxes and cue sheets.

It would be great if Greil Marcus's liner notes were just, "what is this shit?".
Or has he come around?

"Self Portrait" was the first (and for a long time only) Dylan record I heard. My dad had a copy of it and as a 12 yr old just getting into music it was a real "huh" record for me. Took me a long to figure out that wasn't yr normal Dylan record.

how much is the deluxe going to be?

at the mo, it's $125 on amazon to the ~20 for the other : (

damn bob that's a cold shot

bummer about the pricing but i'm really excited that this music is seeing release, especially the isle of wight stuff. i love this period.

tons of good discussion upthread. it sucks that greil marcus' review was reduced to "what is this shit" because it's actually a really long and thoughtful review, even if i disagree with some of his assessments.

http://expectingrain.com/dok/div/greilmarcusselfportrait.html

that is a wonderful review, one of his best ever imo -- love how all over the place it is.

The four questions: The four sons gazed at the painting on the museum wall. "It's a painting," said the first son. "It's art," said the second son. "It's a frame," said the third son, and he said it rather coyly. The fourth son was usually considered somewhat stupid, but he at least figured out why they'd come all the way from home to look at the thing in the first place. "It's a signature," he said.

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/videos/bob-dylans-lost-1970-gem-pretty-saro-premiere-20130807

lovin this

This is damn great!

yeah that sounds awesome.
kinda can't believe that they're not including the new morning version of "tomorrow is a long time" though. that one is great! (can't find it on youtube tho).

#bootlegnerdgripe

oh man these outtakes. "these hands" sounds like an early slow train coming demo

FYI: the super box is on sale at Popmarket for $82.99, Vinyl for $52.99 for next 20-odd hours. Still too expensive but tempting.

http://www.popmarket.com/details/28811265?feature_id=28808750

regardless of the Bootleg/Expanded Reissue version, this is a p funny record. Some great stuff, some terrible stuff, some goofy stuff. The two attempts at Little Sadie are both bad, The Boxer is so totally wtf, and the Isle of Wight performances are a mess. But Early Mornin' Rain is awesome! And a bunch of it is v pretty. It's strange that he does *all* his voices here, including the Nashville Skyline voice on "Let It Be Me". Such a hodge-podge, kind of his White Album except there's a bunch of shitty covers and not nearly enough decent song material.

yeah self portrait itself is entertaining.
the isle of wight stuff on there the most convincing argument that dylan was self-sabotaging — that "like a rolling stone" is the worst performance from the show. as a whole, it's a great set.

"Let It Be Me" is as good as anything else on Nashville Skyline and New Morning

I still don't get what's so unusual about The Boxer. Is it the fact that he's covering it at all? It sounds like bob Dylan covering The Boxer to me

I vastly overrate this album, totally love it

Re: the Boxer - it's the shitty overdubbed/doubled vocals

a side effect of getting really into self portrait is "days of '49" is stuck in my head forever

RIP Poker Bill

also another self portrait is def the best bootleg series installment i've heard

yeah, it really makes a strong case for that era

also another self portrait is def the best bootleg series installment i've heard

I was skeptical about that one, but it definitely salvaged this era for me, with enough stuff to improve both New Morning and especially Self Portrait. I think there's a total of 16 studio cuts that are genuine Self Portrait recordings - i.e. the actual master takes without the orchestral overdubs or outtakes that would have been up for consideration - and just programming those together created an album that I mostly enjoyed. Maybe not his best work, but a hell of a lot better than the album he did release.

The Isle of Wight show is fine, not one for the ages but much better than expected. The mixes released on Self Portrait sound incredibly shitty - they finally mixed it properly for the box set and it's a massive improvement. I'm not sure I'd listen to the whole thing again, but "Highway 61 Revisited" is the definite highlight. Greil Marcus's description of it is hilarious: "...[The Band] screamed “OUT ON HIGHWAY 61!” like PCP junkies hustling tourists into the worst whorehouse in Tijuana."

Nice caption on this official DylanCorp Insta post (if you can't beat 'em...).

Haha I thought this revive was gonna be about the guy who returned a 48-years-overdue copy of Self Portrait to the library

https://heightslibrary.org/better-late-than-never-san-francisco-man-returns-bob-dylan-album-48-years-late/

Chum finds Bob Dylan... then THIS happens pic.twitter.com/SXt86nzyfs

— Pawn Stars (@pawnstars) January 16, 2020

Here’s a little more background on that episode… I saw it when it first aired, it was pretty funny

ah 2010. was kinda surprised how spry BD looks. 12 years ago makes a little more sense

I like how this is obviously staged but Dylan does it so half-assed that you can almost believe they really did just randomly run into him on the street

i think all of us vinyl buyers in 2010 can remember how hard it was to buy a used copy for less than $50